The sweet grasses that grow on fertile soils formed on shale and volcanic basalt, and an abundance of excellent browsing trees, sustain the largest impala, buffalo, giraffe, kudu, wildebeest, zebra, waterbuck and sable populations in the Park.
A belt of granite in the west of this region ends roughly in line with the main road from Skukuza to Olifants camps, bordering an extensive intrusion of basalt that extends eastward to the Lebombo Mountains. This latter region produces clay soils that are rich in the elements required by plants.
Apart from their edible fruit, which is eaten by many animals, elephants eat the leaves and bark of the marula, and the larvae of eight species of butterfly are known to feed on its foliage. Giraffe and kudu are especially partial to knobthorns, but avoid competition for the same food source by feeding at different heights.
Apart from elephants, which are now widely distributed throughout the region, the black rhino is an important browser that is seldom seen. Between 1980 and 1989 groups of black rhino from KwaZulu-Natal were released at Kumana, Leeupan and along the Sweni River.
The Kruger Park's uneven western boundary was therefore decided more by the need to limit the number of farms the government needed to purchase, than it was by any ecological consideration.
Between 1935 and 1944, Eileen Orpen bought seven farms covering 24 529 hectares to extend the western boundary, but even such a generous gift did not include enough land to adequately support the Park's migratory herds.
Predator Paradise
As a result there are many camps in the region. Situated in the centre of the region, Satara is the second largest camp in Kruger, and there are also two smaller rest camps, the charming Tamboti Tented Camp, a camping and caravan camp, two private camps and two bushveld camps.
No fewer than 60 lion prides occupy home ranges in the Central Region, with an average pride size of 12 lions, and within a 20 kilometre radius of Satara 22, lion prides have been counted. An adult lion requires about nine zebra per year, or the equivalent prey weighing 1 500 kilograms, and lion kill on average every three to four days.
The size of a lion pride's territory ranges from 20 to about 400 square kilometres, depending on food availability, but in the Central Region territories are generally not much larger than 80 square kilometres.
A study of 257 lion in the Central Region found that giraffe, wildebeest and zebra provided 81 per cent of all food consumed, but accounted for only half of kills made due to the large size of these animals. In times of drought, lion preyed heavily on buffalo and less so on zebra and wildebeest, but zebra normally comprise one-seventh of lion kills. Mostly zebra foals are killed by lions, but in the case of wildebeest, animals of all ages are caught. In response to lion attacks, the 12 000-strong zebra in the region give birth to about 4 000 foals each year and are able to withstand predation, but do not thrive during wet cycles as they require grass of a medium length. Zebra and wildebeest, therefore, are two species that do best when rainfall is below normal.
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